Automatic pressure release wringer having automatic roll stop



J. HUGHES AUTOMATIC PRESSURE RELEASE WRINGEIR May 24, 1960 G.

HAVING AUTOMATIC ROLL STOP 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Jan. 22, 1957 ATTOKIjEYS May 24, 1960 G J. HUGHES 2,937,517

AUTOMATIC PEESSURE RELEASE WRINGER HAVING AUTOMATIC ROLL STOP Filed Jan. 22, 1957 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 clq rrru J. uusues BY May 24, 19 60 I r M G. J. HUGHES AUTOMATIC PRESSURE RELEASE WRINGER HAVING AUTOMATIC ROLL STOP 4 SheetsSheet 3 Filed Jan. 22, 1957 mvew'roR, oq mu J. HUGHES B! May 24, 1960 c; J. HUGHES 2,937,517

AUTOMATIC FEES-SURE RELEASE WRINGER HAVING AUTOMATIC ROLL STOP Filed Jan. 22, 1957 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 INVENTOK, GIw-FITH J, HUGHES BY M M m-Towevs d? S t Per AUTOMATIC PRESSURE RELEASE WRINGER HAVING AUTOMATIC ROLL STOP Griffith J. Hughes, Fergus, Ontario, Canada, assign'orto B'atty Bros. Limited, Fergus, Ontario, Canada, a company of Canada Filed Jan. 22, 1957, Set; No. 635,321, Claims priority, application Canada Feb. 1-0', 1956' Claims. o. 68-255) This invention relates to a wringer for a clothes washing machine which incorporates a mechanism for automatically releasing the pressure on the rolls and for automatically stopping the rotation of the rolls- The object of the invention is to provide a release mechanism for releasing the pressure on the rolls and for actuating theclutch mechanism to stop the rolls, said release mechanism being responsive to planetary movement of the wringer frame from a normal centered operative position.

The wringer of the present invention comprises a wringer frame, rolls mounted in the frame, a pressure means exerting pressure on the rolls, a mounting for the wringer frame on which the wringer frame has planetary movement from a normal centered operative position, a releasable device pressing the pressure means into pressure exerting position, a driving mechanism for driving the rolls, a clutch device for saidd'rivin'g mechanism including a member for moving said "clutch into and out of driving engagement with the driving mechanism, an index 'pin releasably locking said mounting against movement when said clutch is in driving engagement, a fixed latch-member mounted on said mounting and engageable with a complemental latch on said device, said latch-member and complemental latch co-operating to hold said device in its pressure exerting position, the movement of the wringer frame on said mounting from its normal position releasing the engagement between the fixed latch-member and the complemental latch to release said device from its pressure exerting position, a clutch release mechanism responsive to the movement of the frame actuating the clutch device to release the driving mechanism and the index pin and means returning said frame to its normal centered position. V

The wringer release mechanism which is the subject matter of the present invention is described in the following specification and illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a washing machine having a wringer constructed in accordance with the present invention,

Figure 2 is a perspective view of the wringer with parts cut away to disclose the release mechanism,

Figure 3 is an elevation, partly in cross-section to show the release mechanism in its released position,

Figure 4 is an exploded view of the release mechanism,

Figure 5 is a cross-section on the line 5-5, Figure 3 with the clutch in neutral position,

Figure 6 is a cross-section similar to Figure 4, but with the clutch mechanism shifted to a driving position,

, Figure 7 is an end view partly broken away to show the latch mechanism for holding the pressure means in its pressure exerting position.

Like characters of reference refer to like parts throughout the specification and drawings.

The washing machine illustrated in the drawings is indicated generally by the letter A, the wringer is indieated by the 1et-ter-B,the driving motor by the letter C,

ice

which motor drives the washing machine agitator and also the wringer.

The wringer includes a wringer frame 9, a pair of wringer rolls 10, 11 mounted therein, a cover assembly 12, which forms part of .the releasable device for pressing the pressure means into pressure exerting position with the rolls, said pressure means comprising a spring 13, the pressure of the spring being manually adjustable by the pressure screw handle assembly 14, a rocker arm asse'riibly 15, wringer head 16, which is mounted on the top of the washing machine wringer post 17 and other related parts to be more particularly described. The head 16 is enclosed by a cowling 8 which is formed in two parts.

The head 16 is formed with a bearing 18 in which is mounted a bevel gear 19,-and the shaft 19a. A driving connect-ion between the shaft 19a and the wringer roll ,11 is established by wringer coupling 20 which is constructed to have pivotal movement relative to the shaft. Mounted vertically in the head is a splined wringer shaft 21 which is suitably journaled in the head and has a driving conthat the gear 23 will drive the rolls in one direction and the gear 24 will rotate the rolls in the opposite direction. Mounted on the shaft between the gears 23 and 24, is a splined clutch 25 which isformed with teeth 25a, 25b engageable with corresponding teeth on bevelled gears 23, 24. The splined clutch is moved into driving engagement with-one or other of the bevelled gears 23, v24 by means of a manually operable device consisting of an eccentric block 26 which rides in an annular peripheral groove formed in the splined clutch, a shaft 27 and an operating handle or lever 28. The shaft is operatively connected to the eccentric block by means of an eccentric pin 27a projecting outwardly from the end of the shaft so that by turning the handle to one or the other of its horizontal positions, the clutch member 25 will be raised or lowered, depending on the direction in which the handle is turned, and thereby brought into engagement with one or other of the bevelled gears 23, 24 and thus establish a driving connection to rotate the rollers in one or the other of two directions. 3

The lower end of the wringer head is formed with an outwardly projecting flange 29 which faces and overlies the top 30 of the wringer post 17. On referring to Fig ure 3 of the drawings, it will be seen that the top endof the splined shaft 21 is journaled in an annular boss 31 formed on the top of-the head 16.

The rocker arm assembly 15 is formed as an inverted L-shaped channel member consisting of a vertical portion 32, a pair of spaced apart horizontal arms 33, 34 and a support plate 35 .positioned between andconnected to the arms 33, 34. The support plate 35 is formed with a; circular orifice Which'will receive the boss 31 which forms a pivot on which the support plate will turn. The lower end of the portion 32 is attached to the lowerend of the yoke and head are shaped so that the yoke will have a limited rotative movement on the head. The open ends of the yoke 36 are attached to the lower end of the p'or tion 32 by means of bolts, 37, 38' which also serveas a means for'attaching bell crank stops 39, 40, one on eac side, to be more particularly described in conjunctid" th the release mechanism. The wringer frame 9' is attached to the rocker arm assembly by some suitable means such as bolts, screws, etc. It will thus be seen from this in a: net of mounting the wringer frame that the wringer and rocker arm assembly have planetary moverneiit; dii

the vertical axis of the drive shaft and driving mechanism of the wringer head.

Mounted on the portion of the head and extending underneath the wringer frame is a trip arm 41. The trip arm is pivotally mounted on the head so as.to have up and down movement but no lateral movement, and it projects through a slot 42 formed in the end 9a of the frame, the dimensions of the slot being such as to allow the trip arm to be moved up and .down in the vertical plane and also to allow relative movement in a horizontal plane between the wringer frame and the trip arm. The upper boundary of the slot 42 is sloped upwardly from each end towards the center thereof, and in conjunction with the trip arm, forms part of the means for returning the frame to its normal centered position. The upper surface of the trip arm 41 which engages against the slot, is convex in shape to allow the trip arm to move into the center position of the slot. Centrally positioned on the end 9a and above the end of the trip arm 41 is a hook 43. A spring 44 has one end attached to the hook 43 and the other end attached to the projecting end of the trip arm 41. The spring 44 holds the wringer frame in its normal centered operative position relative to the wringer head and when the frame is moved from its normal centered operative position, the spring will return the frame to its centered position.

The releasable device for pressing the pressure means into pressure exerting position with the wringer rolls ineludes the cover assembly 12 which is pivotally attached at one end to the arms 33, 34, and is held in pressure exerting position by a toggle device consisting of an end lock member 45 which is hingedly attached to the other end of the cover assembly, and an end lock link 46 which has one end pivotally attached to the upper end of the frame end 9a by means of bracket 47 which is mounted on the upper end of the frame end 9a, and the other end of the end lock link being pivotally attached to the end lock member. The end lock member is provided with a centrally positioned fixed latch member 48 which is engaged by the upturned catch 49 mounted on the end of the arm to hold the end lock member in its pressure exerting position. The fixed latch member 48 is constructed so that the initial movement of the wringer frame from its centered position will move the latch member 48 out of engagement with the upturned end 49, and thus release the cover assembly from its pressure exerting position. The latch member is also provided with a finger grip 49a which can be used by the operator to depress the trip arm for manual release of the pressure mechanism. The assembly which co-operates to automatically move the clutch mechanism'to its neutral position when the wringer frame is moved on the mounting beyond the point which releases the pressure means will now be described. The top 30 of the wringer post 17 is provided with holes 50 which receive the index pin 51 and the index rivet 52 mounted in the flange 29, the index rivet being positioned to align the index pin with one of the index holes 50.

The index pin 51 is mounted perpendicularly in the head and has its lower end slidably mounted through the flange 29 and its upper end in sliding engagement with a cam member 53 mounted on and rotatable with the eccentric shaft 27. The cam member is formed with three notches 54, 55 and 56 which are positioned so that the notch 54 received the top end of the pin 51 when the clutch is in the neutral position and the notches 56, 55, receive the top end of the index pin when the operating handle has been turned to bring the clutch into one or the other of its driving positions which thus releasably locks the cam in that position to hold the clutch in the driving position. The index pin 51, is provided with a compression spring 57 which is associated therewith so that it constantly urges the index pin upwardly to the neutral position, in which position the head of the index pin is positioned in the notch 54. The cam is formed with a pair of cam lobes 63, 64 disposed between the ini 4 dents 56, 54 and 54, 55 respectively. The curvature of each lobe is such that when the cam is moved, by the means hereinafter described, towards the neutral or centered position a sufficient distance to disengage the head of the index pin from one of the notches 55, 56, the index pin and the lobes of the cam cooperate to rotate the cam to the centered position. This is accomplished by the pin pressing against the cam surfaces under the force of the spring 57 and will drive the eccentric shaft so as to move the clutch to the neutral position and thus disengage the clutch from its driving connection with one or the other of the gears 23, 24. By turning the lever 28 to the position shown in Figure 6, or to the diametrically opposite position depending on the direction it is desired to have the rollers rotate, the cam member will force the index pin downwardly into one of the index pin holes formed in the top 30 of the wringer post 17 to lock the wringer against rotative movement relative to the wringer post.

7 In that position the index pin will enter one or other of the notches 55, 56 to hold the eccentric shaft in its driving position.

7 By way of further explanation, it is mentioned that when the cam has been turned to the drive position, the lines of force of the pin 51 under the influence of the spring 57 are substantially through the axis of rotation of the cam. The curvature or bend of the cam lobes towards the axis of rotation is such that the distance of each succeeding point on the surface of the cam lobe from the axis of rotation of the cam progressively decreases from the outer end of the lobe to the inner end of the lobe, and wherein said distance at the inner end is not more than about three fourths of said distance at the outer end. In other words, the slope of the surface of each cam lobe bends toward the eccentric shaft 27 and terminates in the notch 54. Consequently, when the cam member is moved to disengage the pin 51 from one of the notches 55, 56, the centre of the lobe is displaced relative to the centre of the axis of rotation of the cam which has an unbalancing effect. The pin 51 then takes advantage of this unbalancing effect by acting on the lobe to cause the cam to rotate until the pin enters the notch 54 located between the ends of the lobes.

In the present embodiment of the invention, the mechanical means for effecting the foregoing initial moveinent of the cam member from the operative position of the clutch towards the neutral is accomplished by the following elements. Pivotally mounted on the wringer head is a shift pin bell crank 58, the pivot point 58a being located so that the open ends of the bell crank will be in engagement with the bell crank stops 39, 40, the closed end of the bell crank enclosing the index pin 51. The bell crank 58 supports two cam shift pins 59, 60, one on either side of the index pin. The shift pins, 59, 60 are arranged to engage with extensions 61, 62 of the cam surfaces of the cam member 53 when the cam member is rotated to the clutch engaging position of the eccentric shaft, one of which positions is shown clearly in Figure 6. The length of the shift pins are such that, when the eccentric shaft and thus the cam member 53 are turned to the position shown in Figure 6 which movement will bring the clutch into engagement with the gear 23 to drive the rolls, the bell crank will be held tightly in engagement with the bell crank stops 39, 40 with the frame in its centered operative position. Planetary movement of the frame out of the centered position will cause one or the other of the stops, depending on the direction of planetary movement of the wringer, to lift the bell crank upwards and the pin which is in engagement with its related extension will shift the eccentric shaft sufiiciently towards the neutral position to release the index pin from whichever of the notches 55, 56 it is entered. When the cam member has moved sufficient to completely release the index pin from one of the notches, the index pin, under the action of the spring 57, will rotate the cam member causing the clutch to be moved to the neutral position as shown in Figures 3 and 5. In the present illustration, the release mechanism is arranged so that the clutch will not be released until after the release of the pressure means. However, it will be observed that the mechanism can be modified to follow a different sequence or timing if desired.

What I claim as new and desire to protect by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. In a wringer having a wringer head, a frame mounted on the wringer head for movement in a horizontal plane from a normal centered operative position, means returning the frame to its centered position after each movement therefrom, wringer rolls mounted in the frame, a driving mechanism mounted in the wringer head for driving the rolls, a constantly driven member shiftable from a neutral position to one of two driving positions, an index pin locking said head against rotation when said driven member is in one of its driving positions, a compression spring biasing said pin to its unlocked position, a manually actuated means for shifting said driven member to and from its driving positions including a shaft having limited rotative movement, a manually actuated lever mounted on said shaft, and a cam member mounted on and secured to said shaft and positioned to slidably engage the top end of said index pin, said cam having a cam lobe on each side of the vertical axis thereof when in a centered neutral position, each said cam lobe having a cam surface wherein the distance of each succeeding point on said surface from the axis of rotation of the cam progressively decreases from the outer end of the lobe to the inner end of the lobe, and wherein said distance at the inner end is not more than about three fourths of said distance at the outer end, indents at the outer end of each lobe spaced to receive the end of the pin when said lever is manually actuated to shift said driven member into one of its driving positions, whereby said pin locks said cam in said position, and a release mechanism responsive to the movement of the frame from its centered position and operatively acting on said cam to impart suificient rotative movement to the cam towards the centered position to release said cam from the locked position and permit the index pin to act on the cam to rotate the cam to its centered position and return the clutch to its neutral position.

2. In a wringer according to claim 1 in which the release mechanism comprises a bell crank pivotally mounted on said wringer head for vertical pivotal movement, a pin carried and movable by the bell crank and engaging with said cam when said cam is moved to its locked position, said bell crank being actuated by the movement of the frame from its centered position whereby said pin is shifted upwardly to shift said cam from its locked position. I

3. In a wringer according to claim 1 in which the release mechanism comprises a pivotally mounted member actuated by the movement of said frame from its centered position, a pin carried by the pivotally mounted member and engaging with said cam when said cam is moved to the locked position, movement of said pin shifting said cam from its locked position.

4. In a wringer having a wringer head, a frame mounted on the wringer head for movement in a horizontal plane from a normal centered position, means returning the frame to its center position after each movementt herefrom, wringer rolls mounted in the frame, a driving mechanism mounted in the wringer head/for driving the rolls, a constantly driven member shiftable from a neutral position to one of two driving positions, an index pin locking said head against rotation when said driven member is in one of its driving positions, a spring biasing said pin to its unlocked position, a manually actuated means for shifting said driven member from its neutral position to one of its driving positions including a shaft having limited rotative movement, a hand operated lever mounted on said shaft and a cam member mounted on and secured to said shaft and positioned to slidably engage the top end of said index pin, said cam having a cam lobe'on each side of the vertical axis thereof when in a centered neutral position, each said cam lobe having a cam surface wherein the distance of each succeeding point on said surface from the axis of rota-' tion of the cam progressively decreases from the outer end of the lobe to the inner end of the lobe, and wherein said distance at the inner end is not more than about three fourths of said distance at the outer end, said index pin acting on said lobes to rotate said cam to its centered position and move said driven member to its neutral position, interengaging surfaces on said pin and said cam lobes releasably locking said cam against rotation when said lever is turned to shift said driven member to one of its driving positions, and a linkage between said frame and said cam responsive to the movement of the frame from its centered position whereby the cam is rotated towards its centered position suflicient to disengage the interengaging surfaces.

5. In a wringer according to claim 4 in which said linkage comprises a bell crank mounted on said head and actuated by said movement of said frame from its centered position, a pin carried by the bell crank and engaging with said cam, movement of said pin shifting said cam suflicient to disengage said interengaging surfaces.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

